Tough road to adulthood for jobless teens

Sean F. Driscoll

Sunday

Nov 29, 2009 at 12:01 AMNov 29, 2009 at 1:09 AM

ROCKFORD — With a metro area unemployment rate at 15.7 percent in October, teens are getting hit particularly hard. Entry-level jobs once reserved for teens are now going to adults trying to earn any money they can following a job loss.

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ROCKFORD — When Michelle Morgan was 15, she worked at the now-closed Hamilton Center True Value store as a cashier.

The job taught the Machesney Park resident a lot — how to work with people, how to deal with the public, how to handle money. All are skills she still uses as an adult, and they’re skills she fears her 16-year-old son, Brandon, will never get.

Brandon has been looking dutifully for a part-time job since the summer, but has had only one interview out of the dozens of applications he’s submitted.

With a metro area unemployment rate at 15.7 percent in October, teens are getting hit particularly hard. Entry-level jobs once reserved for teens are now going to adults trying to earn any money they can following a job loss.

And with the Rockford metro area not projected to return to its peak prerecession unemployment for another four years, an entire generation of teenagers could lose the “invisible curriculum” that comes with an after-school job, said Kristen Lopez Eastlick, senior research analyst for the Washington, D.C.-based Employment Policies Institute.

“What research shows is individuals who are unemployed as teens are often not keeping up with their peers many years later,” she said. “That’s a challenge, especially for employers because they don’t know what new waves of entry-level employees would be bringing with them because they don’t have those skills.”

A recent Employment Policies Institute study showed that Illinois’ unemployment rate among teens aged 16 to 19 was 33.4 percent — the seventh highest such rate in the nation. Since October 2008, the state’s teen unemployment rate has increased more than 40 percent, from 24 percent in 2008.

The large pool of applicants for entry-level jobs that were once nearly exclusively reserved for teens has effectively forced youth out of the market, Eastlick said.

“You have the ability to choose from higher educated, more experienced and higher quality workers,” she said. “Those youth don’t have a chance.”

Jobs matter
Not finding a job during the teen years can have long-term effects beyond a lack of cash.

A 2001 study commissioned by the Employment Policies Institute found that the lack of prior work experience by teens can decrease their future wages. A six-month unemployment spell as long as four years ago, for example, reduces wages by 2.3 percent — a drop equivalent to skipping about a quarter of a year’s worth of schooling. Those teens with prolonged periods of unemployment are also more likely to be out of work as adults.

The Rock River Training Corp. oversees the area’s federally funded youth employment training programs, including this summer’s jobs program funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Executive Director Mike Williams said the programs help participants understand the value of working in a team, showing up to work on time and properly interacting with coworkers and the public.

“The interpersonal interactions and relationships they develop during those early years stays with them forever,” he said. “It is a valuable experience for them to have.”

Jobless rates are even higher for low-income or minority youth. Williams said neighborhoods where those teens live typically have fewer businesses offering part-time jobs, which makes the simple act of getting to work a challenge.

“With higher-income families, there’s usually better networking that goes on with relatives or friends who own businesses,” he said. “Those jobs are reserved for youth even before the summer comes around. (But) there’s a lot of competition for low-income youth in securing a job.”

Williams stressed, however, that the lack of a job can open other opportunities for youth, including extra academic studies or volunteer opportunities that can teach similar skills as a job.

“Some youth who would think about working during the summer may think about going to summer school and strengthen those skills,” he said. “They may look at colleges or hone their test-taking skills. There are other opportunities teens can take advantage of.”

Waiting for a turnaround
The employment situation isn’t likely to improve for teens until the economy rebounds enough to allow older, more experienced workers to move from part-time work back to a full-time job.

IHS Global Insight, an economic research firm, predicted earlier this year that the metro area won’t hit its prerecession peak of 161,900 nonfarm workers until the third quarter of 2013, making the Rock River Valley one of the last areas in the state to rebound. Other economists say signs of recovery will start much sooner, but exactly when is still a question.

Many teen-friendly jobs are in the retail sector, Eastlick said, so consumer spending is likely to have a direct effect on job availability.

“As those segments begin to rebound, that’s where that trickle-down will start hitting (teens),” she said.

But during the recession, many companies have adjusted to having fewer companies. When recovery begins, hiring may not be the first thing on businesses’ to-do lists.

“We’ve seen things like more grocery stores putting self-check lanes in their stores,” she said. “That’s replacing a person doing that job. Those are things that many businesses have made the adjustments on, toward machines that don’t require a person in that spot.”

For Michelle Morgan, she’s concerned that high school will pass her son by without the chance for a part-time job — leaving him less equipped to find work as an adult.

“I think sometimes he’s going to miss out on that,” he said. “You pick up skills on your first job. I think it will be a lot harder on him when he turns 18 or 19 and won’t have any experience.”